“I want to hug my kids. You know an 8-year-old passed away yesterday and he was probably cheering on his mom or dad and I can't imagine. I'm so glad (my kids) weren't there,” Lawry said.

Wearing her marathon medal, Lawry said she's still trying to come to grips with what happened 30 minutes after she crossed the finish line.

“The fan support in that city is amazing, just the atmosphere is unbelievable, it's an experience, and for it to end that way, it's such a tragedy,” she said.

Lawry was greeted with a hug and flowers from her husband at the airport. She said she won't let this stop her from running on May 5 in the Flying Pig Marathon.

Jane Mays was also shaken by the marathon blasts.

Holding a copy of the Boston Globe showing images from the attack, she said she was only half a mile out from the finish line when the bombs exploded.

“As I began walking, there were runners in the street, crying, people upset, wandering around, like zombies, dazed and confused,” she said. “Lots of emergency vehicles, lots of police presence at that time. It was upsetting.”

Mays said she feels anger toward the person responsible, but she won't let this stop her from running the Flying Pig.

“I'm stubborn enough to not let that happen,” she said.

But Dora Izquierdo came back from Boston with doubts about whether she will run in Cincinnati.

“I'm afraid because it was like, I don't know, it's a marathon. It has nothing to do with anything else and right now, I don't know if I'm going to run the Pig or not,” she said.

Mays and Lawry said that even though they intend to run in the Flying Pig, neither is sure if they want to bring their families down to the race.

Hellen Scharff, of Price Hill, returned to Cincinnati Tuesday afternoon. She finished the marathon about a half hour before the bombs exploded.

“We were just like 'Wow, something big had happened' because instantly we hear sirens. (It was) just crazy with people running everywhere. It was pretty much chaos,” Scharff said.

Brooke Vernon also ran the marathon. Her husband, Matt, was cheering her on at the finish line. They had just left the area and were in their hotel room about a half mile away when they heard the blasts.

“We heard the sirens and Brooke looked at me and said something was not right,” Matt said.

The Vernons’ hotel looked down on the medical tents.

“Typically, it's just runners being bandaged for blisters and (treated for) dehydration but it was just ambulance after ambulance, people on stretchers, putting people on stretchers,” Brooke said. “A day of celebration turned into a night of lockdown. All the hotels were locked down.”

“I was crying because I couldn't find my friend who had two little kids and he couldn't find me,” Scharff said.

Fortunately, Scharff found her friend and his kids and they walked six miles to where they had parked because public transportation was shut down.

Scharff said her medal should be a source of pride but she said some of her friends weren’t able to finish the race.

“It is saddening because some of my friends didn't get to finish, so no medal. Saddening because the medal is pride and I feel ashamed to wear mine because they didn't get to finish and I got mine,” Schraff said.

More than 130 Tri-state residents who ran in the Boston Marathon returned home Tuesday.

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